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Primary race to watch

Two Cornell students compete for Common Council Fourth Ward

Patrick Mehler Tiffany Kumar

Cornell University rising senior and current fourth ward alderperson Patrick Mehler will be running against fellow Cornellian Ti any Kumar in the June 28 primary election for a one-year Forth Ward term. e candidate that wins will receive the Democratic nomination.

Mehler joined the Ithaca Common Council last fall as an appointed temporary replacement for former alderperson Steve Smith a er he resigned to move out of town.

Earlier this week, the two candidates participated in a forum moderated by First Vice Chair of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee Stacey Dumas. e candidates had three minutes to introduce themselves, and were then asked a series of ten questions ranging from their favorite local comfort food to more serious topics such as the reimagining public safety plan or a ordable housing in Ithaca.

In her speech, Kumar introduced herself as the proud daughter of an immigrant that stands with her peers in picket lines, marches for abortion rights and rallies for housing justice and gay rights.

“When my mother came to this country with $400 sewn into the lining of her jacket, no one could have imagined that her daughter would be here today, ghting for change,” said Kumar.

Kumar also asserted that she’s run more campaigns, written more legislation and registered more voters than Mehler, in addition to reminding voters that though Mehler is technically the incumbent, he wasn’t elected by the public to the position.

In his speech, Mehler also introduced his family, explaining that both of his parents are “lifelong union members.” He also mentioned that he’s lived in the district for around three years, and built strong relationships with others in the community through his time as Alderperson and because of his commitment to con ict resolution.

“I was very fortunate to have the trust of council, to say ‘we want a college student, we want somebody for the rst time in a decade to come here and to be a part of this,’” said Mehler. roughout the forum, Mehler continued to forefront relationships, trust and working with other Ithacans as his core beliefs.

Continued on Page 7

June 28 Primary: What you need to know

The rst of two 2022 primary elections is just around the corner, scheduled for June 28. Primaries for state and Assembly o ces will take place in less than two weeks, while primaries for congressional and state Senate openings were pushed back to Aug. 23 due to New York State redistricting issues.

When Can I Vote?

e 2022 Tompkins County Primary Election will be held on June 28, 2022 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Early voting will take place from June 18 through June 26, and hours vary by day. e Tompkins County Board of Elections posted a comprehensive list of early voting times.

Who’s Eligible to Vote?

All registered Democratic or Republican voters in Tompkins County are eligible to vote in these elections. In the state of New York, only registered party members can participate in their political party's primary election.

Who Can I Vote For?

e races on the June ballot will include the race for New York State Governor (Democratic and Republican) and the race for NY State Lieutenant Governor (Democratic). 4th Ward Ithaca residents will also be able to vote for a City of Ithaca 4th Ward Alderperson (Democratic) opening. e 4th Ward currently consists of Collegetown, East Hill, and a portion of Cornell’s campus.

What if I Don’t Have Enough Time Off From Work to Vote?

According to New York State Election Law, residents without four consecutive hours to vote either between the time either before or a er their shi are eligible for state voting leave. Employees that qualify can take up to 2 hours of paid time o at the beginning or end of their shi to vote, as long as they notify their employer no less than 2 working days before or no more than 10 days ahead of when they plan to vote.

How Can I Vote?

Voters can still apply for an in-person absentee ballot until Jun. 27 by visiting the Tompkins County Board of Elections of ce or at their polling place on June 28.

Where Can I Vote?

To nd your polling place go to voterlookup.elections.ny.gov and ll out your voter information. Many residents also received a postcard from the Board of Elections last month with their appropriate polling place listed.

What’s At Stake?

e winning candidates from each party will move on to the Tuesday, November 8, 2022 elections.

VOL. XLII / NO. 44 / June 22, 2022 Serving 47,125 readers weekly

ON THE COVER:

Special Olympian Anne Norby getting a hug from her mother Cynthia a er getting the gold in the 200IM

NEWSLINE ....................................3 SPORTS ..........................................7 ITHACA IS...SPECIAL ..................8

e Special Olympics comes to town this weekend.

BUSINESS TIMES ..................10-11 STAGE ..........................................13

MOVIES .......................................14 ART ..............................................15 TIMES TABLE .............................16

CLASSIFIEDS ..............................18

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IN UIRING PHOTOGR PHER Q A

By Casey Martin

WELL, ITS OFFICIALLY SUMMER IN ITHACA. WHAT’S ON YOUR SUMMER BUCKET LIST THIS YEAR?

“Baking Ventures. More croissants. Swim as much as possible. Head to MEXICO!” – Becca G, Alex G, and Kristie Y.

“Exploring the west end alittle more… not just hitting up the Westy.” – April G.

“We just did it. We moved to Ithaca from Boston!” – Arielle L. & Nick D.

“Travel. Any place sunny… or The Bad Lands…” – Jordan G & Brett W.

“Enjoy my free time as best I can before I start Law school at Cornell this fall.” – Alex L. School protest

Dozens protest School Board

Where is Liddy Coyle and why did she leave?

By Julia Nagel

Emotions ran high at the June 14 Ithaca City School District Board of Education meeting. Dozens of ICSD teachers, sta , and community members gathered to express their continued support for Northeast Elementary School’s principal Liddy Coyle, protesting outside the board meeting and speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, as well.

Coyle has reportedly been on leave since May 23, though little to no details about her sudden disappearance from Northeast have been released. Four weeks and a series of Tuesday demonstrations later, the community is still reeling from her absence, expressing frustration with the silence and lack of clarity.

“It’s wrong what’s happening, and I’m going to ght for her,” asserted Northeast Elementary Kindergarten teacher Sandy Rouleau, who’s been teaching at the school for 29 years and in the district for 35.

During her decades of teaching, Rouleau has worked under 6 di erent building principals at Northeast. But, she said that Coyle stood out as the most passionate, child-centered and committed to sta and parents. Because of this, Rouleau was surprised by Coyle’s removal and anxious about the lack of information surrounding the circumstances, such as whether she will return.

Northeast Elementary rst grade teacher Beth Myers was also at the demonstration in support of her beloved principal. In line with other demonstrators, Myers alleged that there may be a more sinister reason behind the lack of clarity regarding principal Coyle’s leave.

“It just feels like they’re not telling us anything because if they told us the truth it would make them look like they were retaliating against her,” said Myers. ough Coyle and Northeast elementary were at the root of the demonstration, many teachers and sta also expressed general dissatisfaction with ICSD’s atmosphere and raised other issues like the central administration, the number of teacher and sta vacancies, vague pandemic teaching plans, code of conduct changes, issues with tenure and fear of retaliation.

“I think in general teacher morale has felt incredibly low, and a piece of that is because we don’t feel like our voice matters,” said Myers. “We’ve been saying for years, ‘We don’t have subs. We don’t have supports. We’re feeling burnt out.’”

Also during the board meeting, Brian Goodman, a fourth-grade teacher at Northeast, provided potential solutions to some of the issues that were brought to light in the hopes of starting to resolve the impasse that’s been present since late May.

“I’d like for sta , family, central admin, and the board of end to pursue policy reform around bias and retaliation,” said Goodman.

According to Goodman, this could look like expanding the positions that are eligible for tenure, creating a red ag committee or dra ing a protocol for suddenly removing sta from a building. e board members emphasized that they were listening to and empathizing with the speakers at the meeting, though they pushed back against some of the assumptions that they weren’t listening or lacked integrity. Instead, they alluded to privacy restrictions and laws that prohibit the discussion of individual district employees in public.

“Because we can’t say speci c things doesn’t mean we’re not listening. Because we can’t speak and put someone’s privacy at jeopardy does not mean we’re not having conversations,” said board member Christopher Malcolm.

Dozens of teachers, including Northeast kindergarten teacher, Sandy Rouleau, and community members protested outside the board meeting last week, expressing their continued support for Northeast Elementary School’s principal Liddy Coyle and carryings signs that read, "Lead with love, like Liddy," "Who's next?" and "ICSD...hearing but not listening" (Photo by Julia Nagel) Julia Nagel is a reporter from e Cornell Daily Sun working on e Sun's summer fellowship at e Ithaca Times.

Green protest

Local organizations host rally demanding Implementation of the Green New Deal

By Laura Ilioaei

The time is now.

Picket signs depicted this message as about 80 local activists rallied at the Bernie Milton Pavilion on June 15. e rally was a cry to local government to follow through with climate-related reforms for implementation. Speakers asserted that environmental conditions were worsening day-by-day, and that if inaction continues, these e ects would become irreversible sooner rather than later. e Ithaca Green New Deal is a plan that was passed by the City of Ithaca Common Council on June 5, 2019 to address climate change, economic inequality, and racial injustice. Its two main goals were to achieve carbon-neutrality communitywide by 2030, and to ensure bene ts were shared among all local communities to reduce historical social and economic inequities. To do so, the City planned to meet the electricity needs of government operations with 100% renewable electricity and reduce emissions from the City vehicle eet by 50%, with both goals to be reached by 2025. Despite having been awarded a $100,000 grant from New York State, the City has failed to show signi cant execution of the initial plan.

Education

3 New Deans Named

Ithaca College Completing Deans List?

By Laura Ilioaei

ITHACA, N.Y. – Ithaca College has appointed three new deans. Michael Johnson-Cramer is the new dean of the Ithaca College School of Business, Amy Falkner is the new dean of Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, and Anne Hogan is the new dean of the School of Music, eatre, and Dance. ey will begin their new positions on July 1st, and August 1st of this year, respectively. e recent appointments mark a major step in stabilizing what has been a dynamic change in many leadership roles at Ithaca College.

Other administrative changes in the past months include Tim Downs as be the new Vice President for Finance and Administration, Melanie Stein as Provost, and Claire Gleitman as the new Dean of Humanities and Sciences.

Former Dean of Students Bonnie Prunty became the Student A airs Vice President. And Dr. La Jerne Terry Cornish became the 10th president of Ithaca College.

At its May meeting, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees elected three new members: Kenneth Fisher, John Neeson, and Alexa Rahman.

Prior to being appointed dean of the business college, Johnson-Cramer was a professor of management at Bentley University. He had also been a dean prior, at the Business and of the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley in the 20192020 academic year. Before that, he was an Associate Dean of Faculty for the College of Arts and Sciences, founding director of the School of Management, and interim dean of the Freeman College of Management at Bucknell University for 15 years.

According to Ithaca College’s Intercom website, in the search for the new Business dean the committee responsible for nding the new candidate sought “someone who would be a hands-on, inspirational, and collaborative leader for the school’s academic, teaching, and research enterprise, interested in the holistic development of our students and with an unwavering and proven commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Prior to being appointed, Falkner was the Senior Associate Dean at Syracuse University and has had a track record of dean positions, including Interim Dean, Acting Dean, and Associate Dean for Academic A airs at the university’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. Prior to that she was an assistant professor in the advertising department at Newhouse, where she was twice awarded the Newhouse Teaching Excellence Award. And before that, she had worked for the press, working with newspapers for a decade in editorial and advertising.

“Ithaca College is such a wonderful academic institution in an incredibly beautiful locale and active local community that my family and I hope to become very engaged in. e college as a whole

Ithaca College School of Business Dean Michael Johnson-Cramer Roy H. Park School of Communications Dean Amy Falkner School of Music, Theatre and Dance Dean Anne Hogan

Continued on Page 7

GREEN PROTEST

continued from page 4

Members from numerous local organizations spoke out at the pavilion stage. e organizations included: Sunrise Ithaca, Extinction Rebellion Ithaca, the Ithaca Tenants Union, the Ithaca Communist Party USA, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative. Each speaker portrayed di erent facets to what it would mean to implement climate change reform in Ithaca.

Sunrise Ithaca is a youth organization who aims to make climate action a priority in Ithaca’s community. “ e City of Ithaca needs to recognize that a promise means little without action. e Ithaca Green New Deal sets incredibly ambitious goals, and we must show a commitment to the bold and urgent action necessary to achieve such goals,” Siobhan Hull, a Sunrise Ithaca coordinator and rising Cornell junior, said.

Extinction Rebellion Ithaca (XR Ithaca) is an organization that utilizes movements involving non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on pressing climate and ecological emergencies. “I want this generation, who organized the climate strike today, to live out their lives on an Earth that is habitable for them and their children and all the other species who share this planet. For that to happen, e City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County, and the State of New York, and the United States of America, and the United Nations all have to do four things: tell the truth about the climate crisis, take action starting now, be governed by participatory democracy, and practice environmental justice,” Todd Saddler, an XR Ithaca member, said. e Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) believes that the only solution to the worsening inequities caused by capitalism is the socialist transformation of society. “Solving the climate crisis will require a new, socialist economic system, where the guiding principle isn’t production for pro t but production to directly meet human needs. Where competition and pro t maximization doesn’t compel us to endlessly increase our levels of consumption and resource extraction. Where we can replace the current international order based on American military domination and economic exploitation of poor countries by rich ones with an order premised on peaceful coexistence and sustainable development,” Max Greenberg, a Party for Socialism and Liberation member, said. ese demonstrate also asserted that Ithaca’s Green New Deal is not only a matter of addressing urgent climate change. It also addresses other issues Ithaca continues to struggle with involving socioeconomic and racial prejudices, fair labour conditions for the working class, and the halting of rents that attempt to locate any opportunities to in ate and drive marginalized communities out.

UPS DOWNS &

Ups

60 new a ordable apartments opened Tuesday at West End Heights, a new $21.7 million development including 38 units for those needing on-site support services on West Court Street.

Downs

American Airlines announced service to Tompkins International Airport (ITH) will be suspended in September due to a nationwide pilot shortage, according to American Airlines Senior spokesman Brian Methem.

HEARD SEEN &

Heard

BB gunshots rang out last week in a drive-by shooting at South Albany and Wood streets. One person was hit but not seriously injured.

Seen

Juneteenth brought weekend celebrations and gatherings in Southside on Plain Street and on the Commons. See Stephen Burke’s story on page 6.

IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND to something in this column, or suggest your own praise or blame, write news@ithacatimes. com, with a subject head “U&D.”

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Hot dogs or hamburgers?

22.7% Hot dogs

54.5% Hamburgers

22.7% Whatever BEYOND meat you have

NEXT WEEK’S QUESTION: Do you miss the Lime Bikes?

Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.

The Talk at

YOUR LETTERS

To the Editor:

Iam deeply concerned on the leadership of our city.county. Common sense has been thrown out the window. Major changes are taking place; such as reimagining police and City Hall restructuring are being done in a rushed pace. Adequate community response or voting has not taken place. COVID has kept us apart and in-person meetings a mostly non-existent.

Meetings should be televised on cable tv, not just YouTube. ey must be available to all in our community. Not everyone does zoom or has a computer. Also public comment sent in written form is not read at meetings. Is this democratic? Also volume/sound issues remain at meetings. e city is operating on anarchy instead of accountability/respect and true democracy. Former Mayor Svante got upset about an investigation of his and others’ actions in the role in police reimagining. I agree with this investigation. Svante brought Lime Bikes to Ithaca without council’s knowledge, because this is how these companies operate. I feel these are parallel actions and represents how our city is operating. We’ve chipped away oversight in city governments which leads to less accountability.

Rights are taken away from one group and given to another. A distorted view of what safety and accountability is by empowering irresponsible behaviors on all sections of our city, from city governance to development, policing and quality of life. It saddens me to see Ithaca so down this distorted path under the umbrella of justice, brings injustice instead.

Fay Gougakis Ithaca

Re: Kill list leads to arrest of two more Lansing High School students

The very same politicians in Albany who proudly deprive us of our freedoms in order to supposedly increase our safety, just made it illegal to sell ballistic vests to NY residents. Last I checked ballistic vests don’t make very good weapons. Now, people will be even more vulnerable to crazies who want to kill inside so called “gun free zones”, aka sitting duck zones, which are a prime target. Yet another example of legislation that achieves the exact opposite of what was intended. Richard Ballantyne

Ithaca’s first church

By Stephen Burke

On June 18, a Saturday a ernoon, the streets of Ithaca’s Southside neighborhood were packed with parked cars. Southside is Ithaca’s traditionally Black neighborhood, and the Southside Community Center on South Plain Street was hosting its annual Juneteenth Festival. “All of Ithaca’s community,” its publicity said, were welcome to the “educational experience with great food, live music” and more. Plain Street was shut to car tra c from Clinton to Green Streets. e Center is halfway between, near the intersection with Cleveland Avenue. All those parked cars, for blocks around, meant that much of Ithaca’s community from outside the neighborhood were accepting the invitation and joining the festivities. In front of the Center was a stage for song, dance and speeches. Along Plain Street were vendors selling hot food, baked goods, libations, clothes, cra s and artwork. On Cleveland Avenue representatives from community organizations had booths with information about access to their resources. Juneteenth is the celebration of the end of slavery in the Confederate states. e Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, but its enforcement took time, following individual victories against the Confederacy by Union forces. e Confederacy o cially surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia in early April of 1865, but word took months to reach remote areas, especially Texas, the furthest removed, where ultimate surrender was not until June, when 2,000 federal troops nally arrived to proclaim and enforce victory. On June 19, at a church in Galveston that became the rst African Methodist Episcopal Church in Texas, the Union commander announced the end of slavery, in accordance with Lincoln’s proclamation. us the origin of Juneteenth, at an historic Black church. From the same time, one of the rst African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches in the U.S. is at 116 Cleveland Avenue in Southside: the St. James AME Zion Church. St. James Church predates the Texas church, which did not o cially become an AME church until a er emancipation, in 1866. St. James was built in 1836. Along with being one of the oldest churches in the AME Zion system, it is the oldest church in Ithaca. e AME is an historically AfricanAmerican Christian denomination. It grew rapidly from its origins in New York City in 1800, providing leadership in the abolitionist movement, including sheltering fugitives from slavery in the South in the Underground Railroad network; it became known as “the Freedom Church.” With the end of the Civil War and slavery, its national membership quadrupled in just two years. Today it is over a million. Ithaca’s St. James Church played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad. Ithaca was an important stop for refugees on their way to Rochester, a vital abolitionist city where Frederick Douglass lived and published a newspaper, the North Star. It was a strong community, although many went on from there to Canada, where slavery was illegal.

Frederick Douglass was a visitor to St. James, as was Harriet Tubman. Like Douglass, Tubman escaped enslavement in Maryland and came to upstate New York. She settled in Auburn, 40 miles north of Ithaca. From that base, Tubman personally rescued scores of enslaved people from the South in over a dozen clandestine trips, risking her freedom and life, and gave guidance and support for the freeing of hundreds more. I live in the Southside area, a few blocks from St. James. Its location on Cleveland Avenue is somewhat surreptitious, not on a corner but a few doors from any intersection on a street that goes only two blocks. I know people who have lived in Ithaca many years and never heard of it. Of course, this has to do with some factors other than location.

While I have long known of St. James, and regularly pass it, I have never been in it, until this Juneteenth. At the festival the church had its door open, and congregants at a table outside among other community groups. I introduced myself as a neighbor with an interest in the church and wondered if I might brie y visit inside. Cheerfully a congregant shook my hand and showed me in for an informal tour. e feeling of history inside is real. It is humbling to be in a place of worship where Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were. My guide mentioned that W.E.B. Du Bois, the great writer and sociologist, a founder of the NAACP, had been there too. e feeling of community is strong. e space for services has pews facing a lectern and a riser to the side for musicians: keyboards, bass and drums. A single large bell hangs in a tower built early last century, my guide said, which he personally rings for services each Sunday. ere is both boldness and comfort in that sound, which rings past, present and future from Ithaca’s rst church.